Windshield wiper blade

ABSTRACT

A windshield wiper blade provided with a longitudinal porous sack extending parallel to and closely adjacent the wiper blade, said sack containing a soluble cleansing agent so that when the windshield is wetted the detergent is dissolved and released from the sack through the assistance of the flexing action of the wiper blade and the solution applied to the windshield to dissolve and/or remove road film, grime, mud and the like.

United States Patent Wright 1 Jan. 25, 1972 54] WINDSHIELD WIPER' BLADE1,870,369 8/1932 Lunsford ..15 2s0.03 2,203,071 6/1940 Zaiger..15/250.03 [72] Inventor: Walton Reid Wright, Raleigh, NC.

U it k Lat Ra] ,NC Primary Examiner-Peter Feldman [73] Asslgnce n e ughArtorney--Pierce,Scheffler& Parker [22] Filed: July 10, 1970 211 Appl.No.: 53,731 [571 ABSTRACT A windshield wiper blade provided with alongitudinal porous a u 5033 sack extending parallel to and closelyadjacent the wiper 8 1/02 blade, said sack containing a solublecleansing agent so that [58] i 250 01 when the windshield is wetted thedetergent is dissolved and g 6 released from the sack through theassistance of the flexing action of the wiper blade and the solutionapplied to the [56] Rat-"anus Cited windshield to dissolve and/or removeroad film, grime, mud

and the like. UNITED STATES PATENTS l 1 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures1,845,782 2/1232 Brazee v WINDSHIELD WIPER BLADE The present inventionrelates to an improved windshield wiper with an attachment thereforwhich, when the windshield is wetted and the wiper reciprocated, willdispense amounts of dissolved cleaning agent onto the windshield so asto dissolve and/or loosen dirt, grime, road film, grease or the like sothat it can be easily removed therefrom.

The attachment as described hereinafter is a sack alongside the wiperblade and may be secured to a conventional windshield wiper indifi'erent ways depending on whether it is secured to the wiper duringthe manufacture of the wiper or applied by the motorist to a wiperalready installed on a vehicle.

The sack which is generally microporous is attached to the wiperassembly and may have very slight porous walls or walls which are moreporous depending on the nature of the cleansing agent used. If an agentis used which is only slightly soluble in water a more porous sack maybe employed whereas if a rather rapidly or easily soluble agent is usedthe sack should be less porous.

In normal use the porosity of the sack and nature of the cleansing agentare correlated so that under normal driving conditions and with nonnalamounts of rainfall the cleansing agent will not be depleted or spentfor several months, i.e., of the order of 3 or 4 months or longer.

After depletion the attachment may be easily and readily replaced by afresh sack with a new supply of cleansing vice agent which, as will beseen below, may be readily attached to the wiper assembly.

One particular advantage of the present invention is the fact that thenormal reciprocal motion of the wiper when being operated will assist inthe proper release of the cleansing agent by causing water to flow aboutthe sack when the wiper moves in one direction so as to assistpenetration of water into the porous sack to dissolve small amounts ofthe cleansing agent and when the wiper moves in the opposite directionthe wiper blade will tend to cause a squeezing action on the porous sackto evenly distribute the dissolved cleaning agent directly onto thewindshield.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional windshield wiper withcleaning agent directly onto the windshield.

Other objects of the present invention will be apparent from thefollowing description in relation to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional windshield wiper with aporous sack attached thereto,

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view on line IIII of FIG. 1 showing onemethod of attaching the porous sack to the wiper assembly,

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing anothermethod of attaching a sack to the wiper assembly by means of removableclips.

FIG. 3a is a perspective view of a spring clip for attaching the sack tothe wiper assembly as shown in FIG. 3,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one form of sack, before mounting,broken away in the center to show the cavity therein,

FIGS. 5 and 5a are perspective views of an alternate type of sackshowing the initial formation and the finished sack ready for mounting.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross-sectional views of the assembled wiper and sackshowing the effect of reciprocal movement of the wiper on the sack.

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional wiper assembly 1 is shown with asack 2 secured lengthwise thereof by the channel clamp 3 which grips theflange. The clamp 3 is conventionally used for retaining the flexiblewiper blade 4 in place. Although the blade 4 is shown as having asubstantially triangular cross section, it will be understood that otherconfigurations are possible provided only that the blade will flex whenin operation.

FIG. 2 is a cross section of FIG. 1 on lines 11-11 thereof and shows ingreater detail how the sack 2 is secured by the clamp 3 to lie alongsidethe tapering wiper blade 4. In this view as well as in FIG. 3 it will beseen that the sack 2 does not extend entirely to the edge of the wiperblade for reasons explained below.

FIGS. 3 and 3a show an arrangement whereby the sack 2 is clipped ontothe outside of the wiper assembly by several flexible clips 5 which maybe easily placed about clamp 3 to secure the sack 2 in place as shown.This later arrangement enables one to easily and quickly replace a spentor depleted sack by removing the clips 5 to remove the used sack and tobe replaced so as to clip a fresh sack in place as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 shows a sack 2 which may be formed of a plastic material such asPVC or the like which has been made porous by methods known in that artand may be preformed by an extrusion process or the like. Usually, thesack is formed as a hollow element with a longitudinal flange 8extending outwardly therefrom and is then cut into suitable lengths.After filling a unit with a suitable cleansing agent 6 the nature ofwhich is described further below, the ends 7 are heat sealed to form theclosed sack 2. Although shown as having a cavity which is circular itwill be understood that it is readily and easily flattened partly by theclamp 3 or clip 5 to assume the shape seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, or theextruded element may have the flattened form.

FIGS. 5 and 5a show in perspective a sack 2 made by rolling a sheet ofthe microporous material into a roll 9 as seen in FIG. 5 and afterfilling with a suitable cleansing agent the ends 10 are closed by heatsealing or in other ways, as by suitable wetproof adhesives and a flange11 is formed longitudinally along one side of the sack for clampingpurposes and is similar to the flange 8 of FIG. 4. When the sack is madeof porous thermoplastic material it is usually advantageous to form theflange 11 by a heat sealing operation when the ends 10 are sealed orbefore filling with cleansing agent.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show how the reciprocal action of the wiper 1 causes thesack 2 to function withgreat efficiency. In FIG. 6, the wiper is movingto the right whereby the wiper blade 4 bends to the left as it sweepsacross the glass surface of the windshield 12 thus forcing water intothe space 13 created between the blade 4 and sack 2 so that the sack isthoroughly wetted and the water seeps into the sack due to its porosityand dissolves a small amount of the cleansing agent. Upon the returnstroke of the wiper 1, as shown in in FIG. 7, the blade 4 is bent to theright and presses against the sack 2 so as to cause a squeezing actionthereon and causes the dissolved cleansing agent to be removed from thesack and flow down onto the windshield 12 in a substantially even film14 shown in magnified form for clarification. Since the cleansing agentis in solution and is preferably water white it does not impede visionto any great extend while on the windshield. The solution thus depositedacts upon the road film, grime, dirt and the like until rinsed away byrain or until the wiper blade sweeps back again as in FIG. 6 and removesthe solution as well as additional rain water from the windshield 12while at the same time forcing some of the water and remaining solutionif any up into the space 13 as explained above. Since most cleansingagents are so called wetting agents the solution thereof while on thewindshield will prevent drop formation and form a uniform wetting of thewindshield which prevents distortion of vision through the windshield.

As mentioned above the sack 2, when the wiper is at rest does not extenddown to nor touch the windshield, since when the wiper is in use thebending of the blade 4 brings the sack 2 closer to the windshield.Usually the sack 2 does not even then, touch the windshield (see FIGS. 6and 7) but when an abrasive-resistant porous material is used for thesack 2 it does not impede the effectiveness of the wiping and cleaningaction even if there is light contact of the sack with the windshield atvarious points.

It has been found that the sacks may be made of various microporouspolymers such as polyvinyl chloride and others and when it is desirableto strengthen such polymeric sacks they may be formed, as for example,in FIGS. 5 and 5a, by

providing a base of woven material such as dynel nylon or nylon anddepositing the polymer thereon so that the base is embedded in thepolymer. In this case, if and when the outer surface of the sack is wornaway the more abrasive-resistant base material becomes partly exposedand thus protects the inner layer of porous polymers from further wear.

There are various known methods for controlling the porosity ofdifferent polymeric materials and thus a particular porosity may bechosen to correlate .with the particular cleansing agent used so as tocontrol the dispensing thereof in the desired amounts.

Various detergents or cleansing agents may be used although it is mostdesirable that they be of the nonfoaming variety, such as the type nowemployed for so-called dishwasher detergents" i.e., tribasic sodiumphosphate and the like. I

It has been found that substantially any and all cleansing agents,whether anionic, cationic or nonionic may be used provided it is in theform of a granulated solid or a gel of a viscous or semiviscous liquid.

Generally the cleansing agent can be of the anionic type such as variousknown alkyl sulfates, alkylaryl sulfonates or the lignin sulfonatederivatives. Soap is usually undesirable since it may leave a residualfilm. The above agents are also low in cost.

The cationic agents such as the various quaternary ammonium salts may beused by the present cost thereof is excessive from an economic point ofview.

The nonionic types of agents such as fatty acid esters can be used buttheir relatively mild detergent action may be insufficient foraccomplishing the desired results in cleaning Windshields.

What I claim is:

l. A windshield wiper assembly comprising a longitudinal wiper blade offlexible material, one edge of which engages the windshield, means forsupporting said wiper blade, means for moving said supporting meansreciprocally so that said wiper blade moves reciprocally over thesurface of the windshield, thus flexing said blade, a longitudinalporous sack containing a water-soluble cleansing agent secured to saidsupporting means and substantially parallel with and on one side of saidwiper blade and closely adjacent thereto, the effective height of saidsack being shorter than the height of said blade and normally spacedfrom the windshield, whereby when the windshield is wetted withwater'and said wiper blade will flex as it is moved reciprocally overthe windshield, so that said wiper blade will, when moved in onedirection force water up along the side of said sack which faces saidwiper blade so that the water may penetrate the porous sack to dissolvesome of the cleansing agent and when moved in the opposite directionwill squeeze the sack to dispense dissolved cleansing agent therefrom,the solution of cleansing agent flowing uniformly onto the windshield tocleanse the same, and to be removed on the next sweep of the wiperblade.

2. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sack is providedwith a longitudinal outwardly extending flange secured longitudinally tothe wiper assembly.

3. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 2 and further com-v prisingremovable flexible clip members for securing said sack to the wiperassembly.

4. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sack is composedof a microporous thermoplastic material.

5. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 4 wherein the microporousthermoplastic material is polyvinyl chloride.

6. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 4 wherein said sack comprises ahollow element closed at its ends and provided with a longitudinaloutwardly extending flange secured to the wiper assembly.

7. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein said sack comprises asheet of microporous thermoplastic material rolled up to form a hollowelement and closed at its ends.

8. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the sheet ofmicroporous thermoplastic material is provided with an embedded sheet ofwoven abrasion-resistant material.

9. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 8 wherein the embedded sheet isselected from the group consisting of dynel and nylon.

10. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein the porosity of thesack is correlated to the solubility of the cleansing agent whereby saidsack has high porosity when the cleansing agent has low solubility andvice versa.

11. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 10 wherein the cleansing agentis an anionic detergent.

1. A windshield wiper assembly comprising a longitudinal wiper blade offlexible material, one edge of which engages the windshield, means forsupporting said wiper blade, means for moving said supporting meansreciprocally so that said wiper blade moves reciprocally over thesurface of the windshield, thus flexing said blade, a longitudinalporous sack containing a water-soluble cleansing agent secured to saidsupporting means and substantially parallel with and on one side of saidwiper blade and closely adjacent thereto, the effective height of saidsack being shorter than the height of said blade and normally spacedfrom the windshield, whereby when the windshield is wetted with waterand said wiper blade will flex as it is moved reciprocally over thewindshield, so that said wiper blade will, when moved in one directionforce water up along the side of said sack which faces said wiper bladeso that the water may penetrate the porous sack to dissolve some of thecleansing agent and when moved in the opposite direction will squeezethe sack to dispense dissolved cleansing agent therefrom, the solutionof cleansing agent flowing uniformly onto the windshield to cleanse thesame, and to be removed on the next sweep of the wiper blade.
 2. A wiperassembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein said sacK is provided with alongitudinal outwardly extending flange secured longitudinally to thewiper assembly.
 3. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 2 and furthercomprising removable flexible clip members for securing said sack to thewiper assembly.
 4. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein saidsack is composed of a microporous thermoplastic material.
 5. A wiperassembly as claimed in claim 4 wherein the microporous thermoplasticmaterial is polyvinyl chloride.
 6. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim4 wherein said sack comprises a hollow element closed at its ends andprovided with a longitudinal outwardly extending flange secured to thewiper assembly.
 7. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein saidsack comprises a sheet of microporous thermoplastic material rolled upto form a hollow element and closed at its ends.
 8. A wiper assembly asclaimed in claim 7 wherein the sheet of microporous thermoplasticmaterial is provided with an embedded sheet of woven abrasion-resistantmaterial.
 9. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 8 wherein the embeddedsheet is selected from the group consisting of dynel and nylon.
 10. Awiper assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein the porosity of the sack iscorrelated to the solubility of the cleansing agent whereby said sackhas high porosity when the cleansing agent has low solubility and viceversa.
 11. A wiper assembly as claimed in claim 10 wherein the cleansingagent is an anionic detergent.